Only another day to the cosmos but to our understanding a fresh whole year. This is the thread to propose to a supportive group what steps you may take towards one or more goals.

In the past week I've read Emerson's "Experience" essay a couple of times. This is almost a combative piece as he pushed back against the "facts" and calculations of "science" to rouse readers' appreciation of their inner creator.

I have organized a few snippets under a few "tips" [my heading in bold red, Emerson's text in blue]:

Respect the CallInto every intelligence there is a door which is never closed, through which the creator passes.

A Step may be to give yourself some SlackWe do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered, that much was accomplished, and much was begun in us.

Prepare for Surprising JumpsAll good conversation, manners, and action, come from a spontaneity which forgets usages, and makes the moment great. Nature hates calculators; her methods are saltatory and impulsive.

Put up a Sturdy Wall of “No!” to Diversions and DistractionsA preoccupied attention is the only answer to the importunate frivolity of other people: an attention, and to an aim which makes their wants frivolous. Adrastia, "that every soul which had acquired any truth, should be safe from harm until another period."

Stepping towards your Goal will Lead You to New PlacesThe individual is always mistaken. [They] designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what [they] promised [themselves].

Enjoy a full day,week, month, quarter, yearof Happy Stepping!

Lynx

Last edited by Lynx on Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Bot and delivered gifts to my family. Made the error of having my brothers' gifts shipped to me. Then I had to pay to ship them to where they are. Not doing that again.

Finished a run of paid hours on several projects.

Hung out with friends.

Invited a friend over on short notice for our new "Fridge to Table" program. Turned out my partner was defrosting deer meat. Very tasty meal and not all the simple find something and heat it up I had in mind. Can't let waiting for perfection interfere with my goal of recruiting more friends.

Read several books. Also, stopped reading several as well that just didn't take hold.

Bot a new 15 in Macbook Pro. Yes, fully new. Got a discount, and its a model shipped in 2015.

Bot the standalone Microsoft Office Suite to bring it up to date (grudgingly).

Skype pissed me off, so I tried Google Voice, liked it, and had to one-by-one copy and paste important numbers from Skype to Google contacts.

Cancelled Skype subscription when I was finished.

Made contact with a publishing company to get information about pulling a book together. Early stages still ...

Sent checks to a couple of people who had offered me a "free" pass back before I got these paying gigs. Both very appreciative, one is not cashing the check! I'm touched.

Cranked up my motivation to get involved with state legislation on something dear to my hear.

Cranked up my motivation to keep involved with local bus route change issues.

Sleep long hours. Took it very slow through the month. Breathed into my friend's new motto: Boredom is good.

Attended several parties.

Attended the performance show for one of the local Jazz Schools and found a fresh stream of entertainment.

Reviewed a play on short notice.

On Xmas Eve and New Years day took in 3 movies: The Man who Invented Christmas, Murder on the Orient Express, and Loving Vincent. All good fun. (We went to a discount movie house: tickets $4 each) Loving Vincent and Murder ... were a rare double feature, though we paid for both.

And here I am, making plans to keep resting well because I enjoy this feeling of ease so much.

Lynx

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Thanks for starting the thread Lynx. I'm glad you were inspired to share some insights.

Besides writing, I want to work on my garden. I can move around better now, so I'm going to try to some garden designing. Today's step - weed eat a path and, if time permits, lay some weed block. I've been depressed lately, and my three rules for fighting depression are go outside, exercise, and talk to people. I haven't been doing these things lately, so i'll try to get some good habits going. Eating healthy is the fourth rule, but I'll settle for getting the first three on board first.

"I'm going to pick something I've already done and declare that was my New Year's Resolution" wrote someone who I forgot to write down the name of.

Work/play on game has come bubbling back, writing drafts by hand and computer (paper notebook remains more portable), and spreadsheeting and mapping.

Still prone to going to sleep suddenly in evenings, but being awfully productive at work first.Sometimes I notice first that I've gone to sleep, sometimes Diane does and suggests (when an opportune moment arrives) that I might consider relocating from the chair.

"For January 1st I resolve to do nothing, and get started early on my procrastination early, so I don't keep putting it off."

Lyndon, thanks for getting a late start on the procrastination, but early for the rest of the year.

We had a saying among my college friends, never put off today what you can wait and put off tomorrow.

Keep the bubbling back attention a bubbling.

Found a new idle activity: looking over the Indiegogo marketplace. These are things that have made it into production. Some are really amazing like the three I'm currently eyeing:

The Knog Oi bike Bell: $20Foldylock folding bike lock: $85 (my current lock is an off-brand U-lock, my back up lock I'm concerned that the key will fail and I won't be able to get it open myself) ($70 on Ebay, free shipping)FormCards: $22 for 9 cards— amazing stuff that you soften in boiling water and then have about 5 minutes to shape into anything you might need. Reusable. Sugru: $12 for a 3-pack. a silicone soft glue which you can form for half an hour and that cures by drying out in 24 hours. More flexible than the FormCards. One time molds.

Let's see: 20 + 85 + 22 + 12 = 105 + 34 = $139.

Also on Proshmart I just scored a Territory Ahead Sweater for $20. Plus some supplements, a book coming soon, computer supplies, going on a bit of a spree, are we?

Time to look at more views ... Lynx

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Me - my yuck-it list is finally down to size. I have two appointments scheduled in January, and they are the last items on my Yuck-it list. After that, I'll be yuck-it free till tax time.

Writing is going slowly. Nanowrimo has some interesting offers to writers which I need to look into at a later date. They're intriguing, but they will require some effort on my part. Today, I have housework items, and then a visit with friends.

Ah, technology. Didn't Socrates tell Plato to plan to devote a full two days a month to its care and recovery?

Case today: Took a casual look at my dropbox online storage and all the backups I did last year of my essay that was so important ... were "not recognized" and thus not openable by the latest Mac OS. Really. Along the was one of my other back ups left me with 10 empty Word files.

So updated Scrivener and began my struggle with it. How do I get a page number on my print out? Finally discovered how. And then printed out everything. The ultimate back up.

Somewhere in there I had a little party with LibreOffice figuring out how to create a mail merge for labels.

Then I took a break, dropped off some packing peanuts at the UPS store and then took in some classical piano.

Now I'm resting before facing another day of this tomorrow: local and state taxes!

[passing, current locks working okay enough] Foldylock folding bike lock: $85 (my current lock is an off-brand U-lock, my back up lock I'm concerned that the key will fail and I won't be able to get it open myself) ($70 on Ebay, free shipping)

[still interested] FormCards: $22 for 9 cards— amazing stuff that you soften in boiling water and then have about 5 minutes to shape into anything you might need. Reusable.

[passing, see FormCards] Sugru: $12 for a 3-pack. a silicone soft glue which you can form for half an hour and that cures by drying out in 24 hours. More flexible than the FormCards. One time molds.

Let's see: before :: 20 + 85 + 22 + 12 = 105 + 34 = $139.

Now :: 22 = 22

Saving: 84%

L

Last edited by Lynx on Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Oh, Lynx, your computer stories are why I hate new technology, and why I swear so much. I'd probably like learning new things on the computer if I could do it at my own pace, and if it didn't stop me dead in my tracks for days (weeks? months?)

I've been quite isolated lately (not a good thing). I wouldn't mind if I just goofed off for one day, and the next day picked up where I'd left off. But it's more like one day of goofing off leads to more days of goofing off, and so on. It's amazing that i made it through college.

Well, so much for the rant. I'm working on the ending now. There's just a couple of pieces of plot to figure out, but when you haven't figured it out, it seems impossible.

I'm reading "The Goldfinch" and I'm enjoying it. For a while every book I picked up didn't appeal. Here's what I'm puzzling about. For the first thirty years of my reading life, I was interested in what was happening, the nitty gritty of the plot. if the book had a lot of description, I skipped over that part until I got to the good stuff. Then - second half of my reading life - I started to enjoy the description. I "got it." That was what made me feel like the story was really happening, and I was right there. So - "The Goldfinch" is strong on description. And I know from my writing classes and from my writer friends that first class description is the "in" thing right now. And I also know that that's the part of writing that I'm weakest at. I'm happiest with a sentence or two of description and then on to the story. I like Ray Bradbury, and he does the most amazing descriptions with just a couple of words. But, he also writes short stories. Maybe I should pick up a copy of "Farenheit 451 and re-read it to see what he does with description in a longer work. Anyway, that's the struggle right now.

Also, just to add yuck to my days, I have to renew my driver's license, and I'm studying for the written test. I got everything right on my first practice test, and my eye doctor says I'll pass the vision test, but anything having to do with government makes me really nervous.

Elaine: I wouldn't mind if I just goofed off for one day, and the next day picked up where I'd left off. But it's more like one day of goofing off leads to more days of goofing off, and so on. It's amazing that i made it through college.

I so know this pattern. I think it's why I'm so attracted to the Seinfeld Approach and my own easing off from its strict discipline: X of Y days.

For now, I'm facing a challenging two hours of facilitation. I'm sensing a difference of approach and covert wrestling for the steering wheel. I'm happy to let go, when cleanly asked. Instead it's "you drive ..." Oh, you're doing it wrong, missed a turn, and failed to signal." Me: would you like to drive?" Them: "Oh no, you're doing fine. Just wanted to point out a few helpful things."

The odd thing, we're dealing with docs. I do all I can to communicate these are drafts, please edit. Note I don't say "grade." Or "Score." Grab your pen, and craft the words you would prefer. I failed guessing and mind-reading in the 7th grade.

A bit of a rant. Feel better.

Lynx

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Elaine, I like your tweak of doodling the marks. One of the tricks Jerry has is "work on" is quite minimal. I watched a small docu on him, and he said, it might be as little as picking through an old file of jokes for a few minutes (his dad collected jokes, and he's continued the archive).

Happy you're into a retreat. Should stoke the creative fires.

I've begun a Steinbeck Warmup almost daily on psychcentral dealing with my struggles with a client.

Toloodles,

L

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel

Friday is a Big Day—I conduct an Open Space exclusively for our team of 15. As I observe myself I wonder what are the optimal levels of suspense or tension pre-day, Day of, and post-day?

I do know some things from long experience. Much of what I'll say will be scripted improvisation, I suppose I can call it that. I know I must start well. I rehearse and refine the first 2 minutes continually.

Not having a sound opening is what sent me into shaky land a week ago when my computer crashed while trying to find their wifi signal. I had to buddy up on the client's computer. I didn't have space to spread my notes, etc. Made a couple of minor flubs, so managed but it didn't feel stable or confident.

One of the members sent an description of OS to the project leads (me + client + one support staff). I'll look at it carefully today and likely will pass it through to the whole team. I didn't send any because we've had a lot of other stuff to deal with, and frankly, I'd prefer to wait for them to experience OS and then talk about it than to read someone else's ideas before experiencing it. I may or may not agree, may or may not do it as described. Plus, they're big students and can google as well as the next person. Sigh.

Much of today is full of printing out needed materials and keeping them organized and in a sensible order.

I have my inner assistant questioning? Am I forgetting something? Is there something I need to bring, create, take?

L

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture.It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel